Week: 11 Eight Values of Free Expression - Promoting tolerance

Out of the eight values of free expression I chose promoting tolerance as the one that I wanted to highlight. I chose it because that felt that was the most relevant to what we are living through today, especially for me as I am only twenty years old, and my generation seems to be the one that is really pushing the importance for this value. I feel like this value has never been perfectly followed and probably never will be as there are certain types of people who will never tolerate people that they don't agree with. At the same time, I feel like they country has never been more tolerant in its history then it is right now and I think that is super important for the country. We will never be perfect but the good news is that it appears that we are trending towards equality and acceptance.

There are multiple groups that are highly active right now in seeking tolerance such as women's rights groups, black lives matter groups, and the LGTBQ community. To keep things simple I am going to highlight the value of tolerance for the LGBTQ community for this blog. 

I think the most important thing for a country to be successful is that everyone looks out for each other. The more people that put there differences aside to be able to work together, the more productive we can be as a nation and even as individuals. I think that people who lack of tolerance for the LGTBQ are so ridiculous. Sexual orientation is actually such a harmless thing that I am struggling to think of an example of intolerance to write about, because I can't imagine any way that someone being gay alone would bother me. I don't agree with the person, but how does who they go home to affect or bother me? It blows my mind that people kind put such a small thing behind them just because they disagree. 

That is why I am happy to see that tolerance theory looks to strike down on hate speech against these groups. That can be a touchy subject with going against free speech but cracking down on the worst hate speech or threats couldn't be harmful.

Without tolerance what kind of society do we live in? I predict that by the time my generation is a bunch of grandmas and grandpas that tolerance will be at an all time high for all types of people and the country will be running as smoothly as ever because that aspect of our lives where that controversy lives won't even exist.

tolerance theory

american LGBTQ tolerance